This is a website about the Android game "Cell Lab"
Cell Lab is a simulation game for Android. It is developed by Petter Säterskog.
Some selected, possibly illuminating reviews:
"Awesome Game I love the concept and the art. My only gripe with the game is the lack of detail into each of the cell types. There would be a big benefit in having a localized database with more info and some examples; bonus points if this can be accessed from within the game. As of this review, I have yet to beat all the challenges, but I am having a good time trying. Looking forward to a sequel!" – Internet user priestofmyownchurch
"Amazing!!!! I love this app so much! Especially since i'm taking microbiology right now, and it's extremely nice to see some key concepts come to life! I really appreciate it! And that it's not your ordinary smarty pants game that only uses smarty pants-ness to allure people but is actually just a regular arcade game. This game is by no means ordinary, and i love it. I agree with the other reviews though that there's always room for improvement--more detailed and diverse cell types would be highly appreciated, although i understand how that could be hard achieve especially in a mobile app. But if you /do/ come to steam, I, among the many other science geeks, would be willing to pay (a reasonable price) for the added features and cell types. <3 Keep up the amazing work!" – Internet user Andrea Cleofas
"Absolutely Amazing; I love it! I am lucky to have found this game! It is a wet dream for anybody majoring in any biological science. The game allows you to engineer genomes to achieve a goal, or for your own experiments for fun. It may take a little time to learn the game's way of engineering genomes, but once fluidity amongst the controls is achieved, their are seemingly endless possibilities! The game is rather realistic in its portrayal of the diversity of physical and behavioural attributes of different cells. The game is well done!" – Internet user Victor Chopp
"Worst App ever I can't beat the 1st tutorial" – Internet user Ramona Thumstedter
"Poop This app is poop." – Internet user Unicorn Girl 101 Cutie Queen
"Im sorry... I dont understand what to do. The tutorials need work." – Internet user Yo Momma
"Evolution IS NIT REALL!!! This game is bad. It tries so hard to disprove Christians but the bible says god made everything!!" – Internet user Colby Velaer
Cell Lab simulates few-celled organisms. It contains 45 challenges where the player is presented with an environment and has to design an organism that will survive in it. Solving challenges unlocks additional genes that can give cells new properties.
The encoding of the cells behaviour has been made as intuitive as possible without losing generality but it nevertheless takes a bit of effort to understand. Going through the provided tutorials carefully is recommended.
Cell Lab also contains an experimental mode where the user can set the parameters of the environment and put designed organisms in it to see how they multiply (or die). It is also possible to seed this environment with random genomes and once a viable genome has been seeded one can see how it slowly evolves through tiny mutations to an organism well adapted to the environment it is in.
It is then possible to change the environment to see how they re-adapt, fast forward the simulation, and finally to save and share it.
This simulation is not biologically realistic, all cells in Cell Lab only has one function, to swim, to eat, to collect sunlight, to float, etc . This is not how cells work in nature where one cell can do many things at once. This accuracy has been traded off to be able to make an interesting game. The cells have also been made to multiply very fast, this also for the enjoyment of the user.
What is realistic is the evolution taking place in this game. How species adapt to their environment and compete with each other to sometimes attain an equilibrium and sometimes extinction.
Features:
• 4 tutorials
• 45 challenges
• 16 types of cells with different functions
• 20 cell-modes per genome to program
• 22+ parameters in each cell mode
• Environment editor with 27 parameters
• Simulates and renders up to 1000 cells at decent frame rates
• Arbitrary number of cells and petri dish size in advanced mode
• Beautifully animated vector graphics that lets you zoom to atomic scales
• Save, load and share both environments and genomes
• Simulation fast-forward and slow-motion
• No advertisements or in-game payments
This app needs three permissions:
• Internet access. This is required to send bug reports and other anonymous usage data.
• Network state. This is required to make sure bug reports and usage data are only sent over wifi to avoid using mobile data.
• External Storage. This app needs to be able to read and write external storage so that the user can send and receive samples as email attachments.
Note that installing an older version will typically overwrite any newer version and you will not be able to open files created in a more recent version of Cell Lab.
Download Cell Lab version 74 APK (6.5 MB)
Download Cell Lab version 62 APK (3.9 MB)
Download Cell Lab version 42 APK (2.8 MB)
Download Cell Lab version 36 APK (2.5 MB)
Download Cell Lab version 32 APK (3.0 MB)
1 -- microscope training 1 2 3 local step = 1 4 5 instructions = { 6 [[Welcome to the Microscope training! 7 Here we will here teach you how to use the robotic microscope installed in our lab. 8 Select the "Cell inserter" marked with an orange frame]], 9 [[Great job! 10 Now you have selected the cell inserter and can add cells in the substrate by clicking on it. 11 Click in the orange rectangle to insert a cell there.]] 12 } 13 14 function reset() 15 lab.load_built_in_substrate("tut1.substrate") 16 step = 0 17 next_step() 18 lab.set_description( instructions[step] ) 19 gui.highlight( gui.views.top.buttons.tools.add ) 20 end 21 22 function start() 23 lab.set_left_panel_mode( lab.left_panel_modes.tutorial ) -- do not show substrate editor in challenge 24 genome_editor.set_allowed_cell_types( {genetics.cell_types.photocyte} ) 25 lab.set_allowed_tools( {lab.tools.add, lab.tools.remove, lab.tools.move} ) 26 reset() 27 end 28 29 function next_step() 30 step = step + 1 31 lab.set_description( instructions[step] ) 32 lab.set_status( "Step " .. tostring(step) .. " of " .. tostring(# instructions) ) 33 if step > # instructions 34 then 35 challenge.finish() 36 end 37 end 38 39 function button_press(button) 40 if step == 1 and button == gui.views.top.buttons.tools.add 41 then 42 gui.clear_highlights() 43 -- add code for highlighting in substrate 44 next_step() 45 end 46 endThis looks like this in the first and second step:
1 -- Challenge Macrophages 3 2 3 local goal_cell_count = 100 4 local cell_budget = 10 5 local placed_cell_count = 0 6 7 function start() 8 lab.set_title( challenge.get_name() ) 9 lab.set_description( "Can you make use of the light incident on this Petri dish to get 100 cells?" ) 10 lab.set_left_panel_mode( lab.left_panel_modes.challenge ) -- do not show substrate editor in challenge 11 genome_editor.set_allowed_cell_types( {genetics.cell_types.phagocyte, genetics.cell_types.flagellocyte} ) 12 reset() 13 end 14 15 function reset() 16 lab.load_built_in_substrate("algae1.substrate") 17 placed_cell_count = 0 18 end 19 20 function step() 21 local n = substrate.cell_count() 22 local status = "Inserted cells: " .. tostring(placed_cell_count) .. " (0 - " .. tostring(cell_budget) .. ")" 23 status = status .. "\nTotal cells: " .. tostring(n) .. " (" .. tostring(goal_cell_count) .. " - ∞)" 24 lab.set_status(status) 25 if n >= goal_cell_count 26 then 27 challenge.finish() 28 end 29 end 30 31 function place_organism(organism) 32 if # organism + placed_cell_count <= cell_budget 33 then 34 placed_cell_count = placed_cell_count + # organism 35 return true 36 else 37 if placed_cell_count == cell_budget 38 then 39 lab.notify_cursor("No cells left.") 40 else 41 lab.notify_cursor("Only " .. tostring(cell_budget - placed_cell_count) .. " cells left.") 42 end 43 return false 44 end 45 end 46